1. Field of the Invention
The current invention relates to parental control systems for entertainment systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to parental control systems for dynamically filtering the content of a video program in real time on a segment by segment basis, based on at least one user-supplied category of filtering criteria. Methods for dynamically filtering the content of a video program in real time on a segment by segment basis ate also disclosed.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In current television and video programs the rating of such programs is based on subjective program content evaluation generated by human observation, i.e., based on some sort of interpreted standard for classification. The result of this content evaluation is a set of recommendations, such as ratings. Examples include ratings of G, PG, PG-13, R, NC17, X for movies, or TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA for television programs. Such ratings are typically shown at the beginning of a video program, perhaps with an additional set of sub-classifications, such as “V” for violence, “AL” for adult language, and “N” for nudity, for example.
One of the limitations of this process, i.e., subjective evaluation, is that it does not provide a comprehensive set of criteria for parents to judge the appropriateness, or lack thereof, of TV programs. For example, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) describes a PG rating for movies as referring to a film which a parent should view or at least get more detailed information on before letting their children watch the movie. The MPAA further states that PG movies may contain some profanity, some violence, and/or some brief nudity—in some combination possibly, but no drug use. Such a description is very vague and uncertain, and does not provide enough detail for parents to make an educated decision about whether some or all of a PG-rated program may be appropriate for their children. For example, while a given set of parents may not find brief nudity involving buttocks objectionable, that same group of parents may be very adverse to having their children view bare torsos, certain types of violence, or hear particular forms of profanity. Another set of parents may have a completely different set of criteria to determine whether a PG rated movie is acceptable for their children to watch. Further, standard rating systems do not address other potentially objectionable material such as social situations (e.g. discussions of homosexuality), philosophy (e.g. pro-life or pro-choice) or matters of religion.
Furthermore, traditional rating systems only apply to video programming which has been evaluated by some entity empowered to do so. Ratings are not assigned to home videos, some limited distribution video programs sold via mail order, etc.
Current parental control techniques regarding video programming rely either on overall program ratings or the matching of program identification against a database of approved or restricted material. For example, televisions currently being produced include technology known as the “V-Chip”, which uses rating information inserted in the broadcast television video programs to determine, based on user supplied information, whether the program is viewable or not. Such rating information is found in line 21 of the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of each field of a frame of the video program. It will be noted that line 21 of the VBI contains closed caption information for standard analog television broadcasts, possibly even in multiple languages, and also extended data services (XDS) packets, i.e., the rating information for a program is stored among other data. This mechanism for transporting data in line 21 of the VBI is described in the ANSI EIA-608 specification, and a summary of VBI line 21 data interpretation can be found in the January 2000 issue of Nuts & Volts. A different specification discusses data encoding for digital video playback and broadcasts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,158 to Vogel discloses a selective video playing system in which a video program on a video tape contains an embedded classification code. That code can then be used to inhibit replay of the video program, under user control. U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,160 to Vogel discloses automatic censorship of video programs, and also involves the use of stored classification codes—either a single code or a group of codes, but with the program coming from either video tape or via broadcast. When a restricted classification code is detected, an alternative video source is automatically switched in. With these devices and methods, as well as the V-chip solution, parents are limited to employing predetermined classifications, which, as previously indicated, may not agree with their particular values.
An alternative approach to parental control has been to try in some fashion to identify a given video program and based on that identification, make a determination whether or not the program should be blocked or be permitted to be viewed. Several techniques for this identification have previously been proposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,779 to Greenberg discusses a method by which a unique ID is encoded into a video program to allow the program to be automatically identified, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,562 to Kenyon identifies video programs by storing a spectragram “fingerprint” of the program into a library, and then using that library to look up future programs via their spectragram to try and find a match. U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,899 to Boles uses a generated digital signature for video information to try and match it to a database.
In contrast, U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,518 combines a video program identification technique with program blocking, by enabling a parent or other user to prevent someone from watching a program which is not in an “approved program” database. So, if the program is not in the database, or if it is in the database but meets certain blocking criteria, its complete viewing would be blocked. The video program identification technique relies on video and audio signal processing.
It should be noted that none of the existing methods implemented in parental control systems permits selective, automatic filtering of only the offending portions out of a video program, but instead merely provides for blocking of entire programs either based on generic, non-specific ratings, or by identifying the program and making a determination whether such program may be viewed.
What is needed is an automatic system capable of evaluating video programs which filters, blocks, or masks portions of the video programs according to user-supplied criteria, in real or substantially real time, i.e., as the video program is playing or being broadcast. What is also needed is a parental control system, which learns the user-supplied criteria. It would be desirable if the parental control system could, for example, filter video programs using criteria appropriate for different groups of viewers.
It should be mentioned at this point that all of the U.S. patents mentioned above are incorporated herein by reference.